Too Many Cookes?

TOOTOO MANYMANY COOKES?COOKES? DAVID P. WEBSTER While the extraordinary number of circus performers named circus dynasty. I found a great deal of interest in many of their orig- Cooke may make research difficult, there should never be com- inal circus posters from the early 1800s and was lucky enough to pur- plaints of too many Cookes as this great old family of showmen played chase several Cooke circus posters at a church book sale in Edin- an extremely important part in popularizing circuses and were, with burgh. It did not take me long to reach the conclusion that the Cooke good reason, great supporters of strongmen. They, more than any- family made a very significant contribution to the development of body else, set the scene for the Golden Age of Strength. Many think the circus. Even their very early posters featured strength and pos- that strongman acts began with Samson and Sandow in late Victo- ing acts, which is not surprising considering that the founder and some rian times but that is far from true; there were good, well-known of his descendants were just such performers. strongmen one hundred years earlier and what’s more, they were very Thomas Taplin Cooke was a professional strongman with versatile performers capable of feats which are beyond the capabili- his father’s circus and in his act he supported on his chest a plat- ties of most strongmen today. form on which ten men mounted and were held solidly to great The Cookes were descended from a baronet, Sir Thomas applause. This might merely have been bearing the weight while Cooke, Bart., of Holkham Hall, Norfolk, a strongman who founded lying on the ground, a stunt of no great merit, but “being held solid- one of the very first travelling circuses and thus earned an enviable ly to great applause,” as stated in the contemporary report suggests place in history. It was also one of the first families to take a com- that it could be one of the earliest recorded examples of the Tomb plete circus abroad —but that is getting a little ahead of the story. of Hercules feat. He became well known in the Scottish fairground The exact date of the founding of this circus is difficult to booths of the late eighteenth century and became even more like pinpoint and it is likely to be earlier than generally stated. Certainly his father when he, too, became a noted proprietor. Like most of the they toured in the early 1800s, but if Cooke’s Circus was much enjoyed Cookes, Thomas Taplin was an all-round athlete, a competent tightrope by Scotland’s national poet, as has been claimed, than it must have walker and talented equestrian. As he took over from his dad, and been quite a lot earlier than was generally believed as Robert Burns became thought of as the patriarch, the strongman’s offspring inter- lived from 1759-1796. This fits in with other accepted dates, e.g. married into shows throughout the world. It was almost certainly the Thomas Taplin Cooke, son of the founder, was born into the circus first major circus family in existence. family in Warwick in 1782, so they were already on the road at that By going to Spain and Portugal, and appearing in Lisbon time. in 1816, Thomas Cooke’s became one of the first overseas touring Scotland became one of the Cooke’s major locations, and circuses. It was probably the second to do so, the earliest being it was because of their lasting reputation in this area and their unbro- Astley’s, recognized as being the first circus-type entertainment as ken links with strongmen that the author made a special study of this we know it today. After getting quite rich from this tour, the Cooke 13 IRON GAME HISTORY VOLUME 4 NUMBERS 5 & 6 family decided to sail to America in 1817 but the idea was aborted after losing forty good horses in a bad storm in the Bay of Biscay. Back in Britain the family established a widespread circuit of indoor facilities, permanent and semi-permanent wooden buildings, partic- ularly in Scotland where they had many venues in major cites and towns — Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth and Greenock. Naturally, they had many locations in England too and they became Cooke’s Royal Circus after a command performance before William IV and Queen Adelaide at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton in 1830. Six years later Thomas Cooke, with 130 performers (and forty of his family) eventually got to America in three sailing ships. In New York the strongman built an amphitheater seat- ing two thousand people and erected another permanent building in Baltimore. Both were burnt down, all horses being lost in the second fire. They returned to Britain in 1837 and although disheartened, con- tinued to build a circus empire. Old man Cooke died on 19 March 1866 at the age of eighty-four having seen his family become a circus legend. While they have usually been associated with equestrian- ism, strength and physical acts were traditional in Cooke family shows. At Cooke’s Royal Equestrian Establishment Circus at Dundee in February 1835, J. Cooke featured “Wonderful feats of strength by the Roman Hercules or Iron Arm.” Woodcuts of Hercules were seen on many of the posters. Strength was also evident when a group of strongmen regularly gave “A surprising display of Agility by the numer- ous Artistes in which they formed many wonderful positions repre- senting Ancient Pyramidic Devices.” One of the early pyramid acts included Messers. Ansell, H. Brown, R. Brown, Candler, Cunning- ham, Furlong, Gunn, and Taylor. These names crop up on many circus bills prior to 1850, often in solo acts in their own right. The earliest displayed advertisement of Astley’s circus from 1788 included Mr. J. Taylor as a savage chief, a part suited to a man of fine physique, and one of the Browns became a proprietor working under the name of Toumaire in 1845. William Cooke’s touring circus in and around 1840 featured his personal strongman act and at various times other strongmen such as Carlo Spelterini of Italy and a Mr. Baker. The nation- alities of these stalwarts was subject to change. Spelterini was either the Italian Hercules or the Patagonian Samson. Baker was the English Strongman or the Patagonian Samson. The latter professional name was perhaps an attempt to cash in on the fame of the recent Italian strongman, Giovanni Belzoni (1778-1823). Spelterini had long been associated with Cooke’s and had done posing, balancing and strongman acts for them at a major event they staged in Vauxhall Gar- dens in London in 1827. He was also hired by William Cooke for Scottish dates in the early 1840s. One of his favorite stunts was to balance a large heavy plank, or a caber, on his chin. As a complete contrast and amusement, he was equally adept at balancing a pea- cock’s feather in the same way. Alfred Cooke’s Circus in June 1842 advertised “Unprece- dented Evolutions, Athletic Displays and Herculean Achievements AN 1831 POSTER ANNOUNCING A PERFORMANCE OF COOKE’S EQUES- not to be equalled by Modern Gymnastics.” In 1841, Astley’s Cir- TRIAN CIRCUS AT THE HAYMARKET THEATER IN LONDON. cus was destroyed by fire for the third time and the manager of the 14 AUGUST 1997 IRON GAME HISTORY new Astley’s of the 1850s was the before-mentioned William Cooke Jamieson, an old athletic friend who had attended and loved these (1808-1886), second oldest son of Thomas Taplin Cooke and Mary shows. He knew well John Henry Cooke’s Royal Circus at Bridge Ann Cooke (nee Thorpe 1784-1868). William was atypical Cooke, Street, Aberdeen, in the 1890s. John Henry, son of Alfred, was a strongman like his father and grandfather before him, a superb eques- born in New York during the Cooke’s tour in 1836. Apart from the trian and a most acrobatic clown. He was also equally at home on family enterprises he was a popular star with Sangers and Henglers. tightrope or slack wire. On the latter he is said to have revolved The Henglers and Cookes worked in each others’ circuses and the one hundred times “standing erect on the cord.” That would be a families intermarried. In Glasgow, where Hengler’s Circus had a clever trick! We suspect this was what was known as “short swings” great following, John Henry Cooke was famous as a boxer and the as opposed to grand circles or long swings. One of William Cooke’s Saxon Trio was another star attraction with Hengler’s in Glasgow at incredible strongman feats was performed high above the ring. He the beginning of the century. Of course John Henry was also an eques- hung upside down from a small platform and held suspended from trian of exceptional merit, indeed of world class, and in addition to his hands a grown horse. No doubt he was well strapped but it was nine American tours he travelled all over the globe with great suc- nevertheless a spectacular presentation and the earliest performance cess. He died on 22 August 1917. I know of such a feat, although it was soon being copied by others. Another benefactor to strongmen of that era was William On 22 February 1836 there was a benefit for Mr. William Batty (1801-1868), a man of indominatable energy and enterprise, Cooke at Aberdeen in the northeast of Scotland and, of course, the who toured widely from the 1820s until the 1840s.

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